Book of Judges

Summary of the Book of Judges

This summary of the book of Judges provides information about the title, author(s), date of writing, chronology, theme,
theology, outline, a brief overview, and the chapters of the Book of Judges.

Title

The title refers to the leaders Israel had from the time
of the elders who outlived Joshua until the time of the
monarchy. Their principal purpose is best expressed in
2:16: "Then the Lord raised up judges, who saved them out
of the hands of . . . raiders." Since it was God who permitted
the oppressions and raised up deliverers, he himself was
Israel's ultimate Judge and Deliverer (11:27; see 8:23, where Gideon, a judge, insists that the Lord is Israel's
true ruler).

Author and Date

Although tradition ascribes the book to Samuel, the author
is actually unknown. It is possible that Samuel assembled
some of the accounts from the period of the judges and that
such prophets as Nathan and Gad, both of whom were associated
with David's court, had a hand in shaping and editing the
material (see 1Ch 29:29).

The date of composition is also unknown, but it was undoubtedly
during the monarchy. The frequent expression "In those days
Israel had no king" (17:6; 18:1; 19:1; 21:25) suggests a
date after the establishment of the monarchy. The observation
that the Jebusites still controlled Jerusalem (1:21) has
been taken to indicate a time before David's capture of the
city c. 1000 b.c. (see 2Sa 5:6-10). But the new conditions
in Israel alluded to in chs. 17-21 suggest a time after the
Davidic dynasty had been effectively established (tenth century
b.c.).

Themes and Theology

The book of Judges depicts the life of Israel in the promised
land from the death of Joshua to the rise of the monarchy.
On the one hand, it is an account of frequent apostasy, provoking
divine chastening. On the other hand, it tells of urgent
appeals to God in times of crisis, moving the Lord to raise
up leaders (judges) through whom he throws off foreign oppressors
and restores the land to peace.

With Israel's conquest of the promised land through the
leadership of Joshua, many of the covenant promises God had
made to their ancestors were fulfilled (see Jos 21:43-45).
The Lord's land, where Israel was to enter into rest, lay
under their feet; it remained only for them to occupy it,
to displace the Canaanites and to cleanse it of paganism.
The time had come for Israel to be the kingdom of God in
the form of an established commonwealth on earth.

But in Canaan Israel quickly forgot the acts of God that
had given them birth and had established them in the land.
Consequently they lost sight of their unique identity as
God's people, chosen and called to be his army and the loyal
citizens of his emerging kingdom. They settled down and attached
themselves to Canaan's peoples together with Canaanite morals,
gods, and religious beliefs and practices as readily as to
Canaan's agriculture and social life.

Throughout Judges the fundamental issue is the lordship
of God in Israel, especially Israel's acknowledgment of and
loyalty to his rule. His kingship over Israel had been uniquely
established by the covenant at Sinai (Ex 19-24), which was
later renewed by Moses on the plains of Moab (Dt 29) and
by Joshua at Shechem (Jos 24). The author accuses Israel
of having rejected the kingship of the Lord again and again.
They stopped fighting the Lord's battles, turned to the gods
of Canaan to secure the blessings of family, flocks and fields,
and abandoned God's laws for daily living. In the very center
of the cycle of the judges (see Outline), Gideon had to remind
Israel that the Lord was their King (see note on 8:23). The
recurring lament, and indictment, of chs. 17 - 21 (see Outline)
is: "In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as he
saw fit" (see note on 17:6). The primary reference here is
doubtless to the earthly mediators of the Lord's rule (i.e.,
human kings), but the implicit charge is that Israel did
not truly acknowledge or obey her heavenly King either.

Only by the Lord's sovereign use of foreign oppression
to chasten his people -- thereby implementing the covenant curses
(see Lev 26:14-45; Dt 28:15-68) -- and by his raising up deliverers when his people cried out to him did he maintain his kingship
in Israel and preserve his embryonic kingdom from extinction.
Israel's flawed condition was graphically exposed; they continued
to need new saving acts by God in order to enter into the
promised rest (see note on Jos 1:13).

Out of the recurring cycles of disobedience, foreign oppression,
cries of distress, and deliverance (see 2:11-19; Ne 9:26-31)
emerges another important theme -- the covenant faithfulness
of the Lord. The amazing patience and long-suffering of God
are no better demonstrated than during this unsettled period.

Remarkably, this age of Israel's failure, following directly
on the redemptive events that came through Moses and Joshua,
is in a special way the OT age of the Spirit. God's Spirit
enabled people to accomplish feats of victory in the Lord's
war against the powers that threatened his kingdom (see 3:10; 6:34; 11:29; 13:25; 14:6,19; 15:14; see also 1Sa 10:6,10; 11:6; 16:13). This same Spirit, poured out on the church
following the redemptive work of the second Joshua (Jesus),
empowered the people of the Lord to begin the task of preaching
the gospel to all nations and of advancing the kingdom of
God (see notes on Ac 1:2,8).

Background

Fixing precise dates for the judges is difficult and
complex. The dating system followed here is based primarily
on 1Ki 6:1, which speaks of an interval of 480 years between
the exodus and the fourth year of Solomon's reign. This would
place the exodus c. 1446 b.c. and the period of the judges
between c. 1380 and the rise of Saul, c. 1050. Jephthah's
statement that Israel had occupied Heshbon for 300 years
(11:26) generally agrees with these dates. And the reference
to "Israel" in the Merneptah Stele demonstrates that Israel
was established in Canaan before 1210 b.c..
Some maintain, however, that the number 480 in 1Ki 6:1 is
somewhat artificial, arrived at by multiplying 12 (perhaps
in reference to the 12 judges) by 40 (a conventional number
of years for a generation). They point out the frequent use
of the round numbers 10, 20, 40 and 80 in the book of Judges
itself. A later date for the exodus would of course require
a much shorter period of time for the judges (see Introduction
to Exodus: Chronology; see also note on 1Ki 6:1).

Literary Features

Even a quick reading of Judges discloses its basic threefold
division: (1) a prologue (1:1 -- 3:6), (2) a main body (3:7 -- 16:31)
and (3) an epilogue (chs. 17 - 21). Closer study brings to
light a more complex structure, with interwoven themes that
bind the whole into an intricately designed portrayal of
the character of an age.

The prologue (1:1 -- 3:6) has two parts, and each serves a
different purpose. They are not chronologically related,
nor does either offer a strict chronological scheme of the
time as a whole. The first part (1:1 -- 2:5) sets the stage
historically for the narratives that follow. It describes
Israel's occupation of the promised land -- from their initial
success to their large-scale failure and divine rebuke.

The second part (2:6 -- 3:6) indicates a basic perspective
on the period from the time of Joshua to the rise of the
monarchy, a time characterized by recurring cycles of apostasy,
oppression, cries of distress and gracious divine deliverance.
The author summarizes and explains the Lord's dealings with
his rebellious people and introduces some of the basic vocabulary
and formulas he will use in the later narratives: "did evil
in the eyes of the Lord," 2:11 (see 3:7,12; 4:1; 6:1; 10:6); "handed them over to," 2:14 (see 6:1; 13:1); and "sold them," 2:14 (see 3:8; 4:2; 10:7).

The main body of the book (3:7 -- 16:31), which gives the
actual accounts of the recurring cycles (apostasy, oppression,
distress, deliverance), has its own unique design. Each cycle
has a similar beginning ("the Israelites did evil in the
eyes of the Lord"; see note on 3:7) and a recognizable conclusion
("the land had peace . . . years" or "led Israel . . . years";
see note on 3:11). The first of these cycles (Othniel; see
3:7-11 and note) provides the "report form" used for each
successive story of oppression and deliverance.

The remaining five cycles form the following narrative
units, each of which focuses on one of the major judges:

Ehud (3:12-30), a lone hero from the tribe of Benjamin
who delivers Israel from oppression from the east.

Deborah (chs. 4 - 5), a woman from one of the Joseph
tribes (Ephraim, west of the Jordan) who judges at a
time when Israel is being overrun by a coalition of Canaanites
under Sisera.

Gideon and his son Abimelech (chs. 6 - 9), whose story
forms the central account. In many ways Gideon is the
ideal judge, evoking memory of Moses, while his son is
the very antithesis of a responsible and faithful judge.

Jephthah (10:6 -- 12:7), a social outcast from the other
Joseph tribe (Manasseh, east of the Jordan) who judges
at a time when Israel is being threatened by a coalition
of powers under the king of Ammon.

Samson (chs. 13 - 16), a lone hero from the tribe of
Dan who delivers Israel from oppression from the west.

The arrangement of these narrative units is significant.
The central accounts of Gideon (the Lord's ideal judge) and
Abimelech (the anti-judge) are bracketed by the parallel
narratives of the woman Deborah and the social outcast Jephthah -- which
in turn are framed by the stories of the lone heroes Ehud
and Samson. In this way even the structure focuses attention
on the crucial issue of the period of the judges: Israel's
attraction to the Baals of Canaan (shown by Abimelech; see
note on 9:1-57) versus the Lord's kingship over his people
(encouraged by Gideon; see note on 8:23).

The epilogue (chs. 17 - 21) characterizes the era in yet
another way, depicting religious and moral corruption on
the part of individuals, cities and tribes. Like the introduction,
it has two divisions that are neither chronologically related
nor expressly dated to the careers of specific judges. The
events must have taken place, however, rather early in the
period of the judges (see notes on 18:30; 20:1,28).

By dating the events of the epilogue only in relationship
to the monarchy (see the recurring refrain in 17:6; 18:1; 19:1; 21:25), the author contrasts the age of the judges
with the better time that the monarchy inaugurated, undoubtedly
having in view the rule of David and his dynasty (see note
on 17:1 -- 21:25). The book mentions two instances of the Lord's
assigning leadership to the tribe of Judah: (1) in driving
out the Canaanites (1:1-2), and (2) in disciplining a tribe
in Israel (20:18). The author views the ruler from the tribe
of Judah as the savior of the nation.

The first division of the epilogue (chs. 17 - 18) relates
the story of Micah's development of a paganized place of
worship and tells of the tribe of Dan abandoning their allotted
territory while adopting Micah's corrupted religion. The
second division (chs. 19 - 21) tells the story of a Levite's
sad experience at Gibeah in Benjamin and records the disciplinary
removal of the tribe of Benjamin because it had defended
the degenerate town of Gibeah.

The two divisions have several interesting parallels:

Both involve a Levite's passing between Bethlehem
(in Judah) and Ephraim across the Benjamin-Dan corridor.

Both mention 600 warriors -- those who led the tribe
of Dan and those who survived from the tribe of Benjamin.

Both conclude with the emptying of a tribal area
in that corridor (Dan and Benjamin).

Not only are these Benjamin-Dan parallels significant within
the epilogue, but they also form a notable link to the main
body of the book. The tribe of Benjamin, which in the epilogue
undertook to defend gross immorality, setting ties of blood
above loyalty to the Lord, was the tribe from which the Lord
raised up the deliverer Ehud (3:15). The tribe of Dan, which in the epilogue retreated from its assigned inheritance and
adopted pagan religious practices, was the tribe from which
the Lord raised up the deliverer Samson (13:2,5). Thus the tribes that in the epilogue depict the religious and moral
corruption of Israel are the very tribes from which the deliverers
were chosen whose stories frame the central account of the
book (Gideon-Abimelech).

The whole design of the book from prologue to epilogue,
the unique manner in which each section deals with the age
as a whole, and the way the three major divisions are interrelated
clearly portray an age gone awry -- an age when "Israel had
no king" and "everyone did as he saw fit" (17:6).
Of no small significance is the fact that the story is in
episodes and cycles. It is given as the story of all Israel,
though usually only certain areas are directly involved.
The book portrays the centuries after Joshua as a time of
Israelite unfaithfulness to the Lord and of their surrender
to the allurements of Canaan. Only by the mercies of God
was Israel not overwhelmed and absorbed by the pagan nations
around them. Meanwhile, however, the history of redemption
virtually stood still -- awaiting the forward movement that
came with the Lord's servant David and the establishment
of his dynasty.